Revue of RATTLE SNAKE- THE AHANNA STORY

A remake of the classic 1995 Amaka Igwe film, Rattlesnake: The Ahanna Story follows the story of Ahanna (Stan Nze) who to break away from poverty settles for a life of crime by creating a criminal gang called “The Armadas”. He however crosses paths with an underground crime lord who wants his head. The police are also on his heels. How will he get out of this?
I think its time we accept that good lighting and cinematography are expected in EVERY film, so that can no longer be the highlight of a film. A good film now will have to up their game and give us engaging stories with mind blowing acting. So, having this in mind, let’s dissect Rattle Snake: The Ahanna Story.
Stan Nze made an amazing Ahanna. His acting is top notch and very fetching. He is the star of the whole film because he carried the film on his shoulders and did it with ease. To be honest, I haven’t really paid attention to him but from this film I have taken notice of his skill. The rest of the characters like Osas, Bucci, Gloria etc. also gave decent performances to complement Stan’s acting, so I guess overall, acting wasn’t so bad.
The story was fair but had several issues. For one, the backstory of Ahanna isn’t good enough. In the Original Rattle Snake, we understand how poverty pushed Ahanna into a life of crime, but in this remake, there is little reason for him to turn to robbery. Quite the opposite, his early life was even easier than that of average Nigerians. Even his first act of robbery which catapulted him into the gangland is implausible and unbelievable.
Talking about unbelievability, the film’s sequence of events are so westernized and very un-Nigerian. I guess the idea of the film is to make it as contemporary as possible, but not at the expense of losing your local audience. I guess the local audience isn’t Okpaleke’s target market sha, but for me, after a while I got tired of the cheesy American one liners and mannerisms and quickly got bored.
Another puke worthy thing with this is the brand placement. Hey, I know the film will not finance itself but I have not seen this brazen brand placement since that equally nauseating Keystone Bank scene in Chief Daddy. I think we need to be more subtle in our brand placements. I was truly irked and put off by this. Oh, there was one stupid thing I saw in this film that made me laugh and shake my head. Apparently, the Armadas are all in one Whatsapp group, and guess what's the name of the group? Yeap, you guessed it. The group was called "The Armadas"! So a notorious criminal gang will create a Whatsapp group and then call it the name of the gang? What a way to remain discreet.
By the way, I have noticed that Ramsey Nouah is now building some sort of Ramseyverse or Ramsey Cinematic Universe (RCU) with all these remakes. I don’t want to give too much away but keep your eye open for a common character that is popping up in all his films.
To the most important question if Rattle Snake ; The Ahanna Story is better than the original Amaka Igwe classic? No. No it is not. It may be more visually appealing and contemporary but definitely not as engaging or intriguing.
So, as you can see from my review, there are the ups and downs in “Rattle Snake: The Ahanna Story” so if you enjoy it or not will be largely based on individual preferences. It’s still showing on cinemas so you can check it out and make up your own mind. When you do see it, please feel free to leave a comment below or on Twitter or Facebook !
And yes! Compliments of the Season!!!